Melor and Jinner had to grab hold of the warehouse racking as what felt like a major earthquake shook the facility and lumps of plaster rattled around the shelving as it fell randomly around them. The lighting failed, plunging them into blackness before a few emergency lights flickered on, immersing them in a dingy orange hue.
Melor could taste the dust in the air as her eyes met Jinner’s look of concern. ‘We need to hide,’ she said, glancing up at the rows of cocoons.
‘Is there no other way out?’ Jinner asked.
‘If there is, they’ll be down here before we find it.’
Jinner’s eyes followed Melor’s as she looked up at the cocoons again and she nodded, realising what Melor was thinking.
‘Up there,’ said Melor, pointing to the end of the aisle. ‘About four levels up. We need to be able to see what’s going on here at the entrance, be above a casual glance inside and be able to jump down quickly.’ She didn’t wait for Jinner’s approval and quickly stepped into one of the electric scissor lifts used to hoist the cocoons up to the higher levels. ‘Come on,’ she said, beckoning to Jinner. ‘We need to hurry.’
They removed two cocoons from the fourth level and placed the inert androids in the preparation room, both of them changing their appearance to mimic the androids in question. After replacing the empty cocoons back on the fourth level, they returned the lift to its charging point and quickly climbed up and inside the cocoons, closed the transparent lids and lay back to wait.
As it turned out, they needn’t have rushed. It was several hours before they detected noises coming from the lift shaft out in the corridor. Melor realised there must have been a lot of debris in the shaft, as the sounds of banging and scraping went on for some time.
Finally, silence returned to the complex. Melor raised her head slightly so she could observe the doorway. She noticed Jinner doing the same thing in her peripheral vision.
Two weapon barrels appeared around the door frame, followed by helmeted faces scanning nervously for any movement. Four more soldiers followed as they silently swept down each row.
Once they were satisfied the warehouse was devoid of active androids, they relaxed a bit, radioed back to say the complex was clear and called for someone more senior to inspect what they had found. A man who Melor presumed was an officer turned up shortly after. He took one look at the thousands of inert androids and quickly sought clarification as to what to do. Melor watched him nodding as the radioed reply came through, although she couldn’t hear what was said with the cocoon lid muffling the voices.
It soon became apparent as boxes of explosives were carried in and placed around the cavern. Melor and Jinner exchanged a glance. They both knew what they had to do.
Waiting until the doorway was clear, they silently climbed out of the cocoons and moved up and out of sight along the back wall. Both Melor and Jinner froze and paused, hoping their prey didn’t look up as they rounded the corner.
Two soldiers in jumpsuits, carrying two more boxes and chatting to each other, turned the corner, the brims of their caps obscuring what was above them. The first and last thing they knew was being hit hard from above, a sharp pain and then blackness.
Melor quickly retracted the stiletto back into her forearm, grabbed the explosives and dragged the body into a small store room at the back of the cavern, Jinner doing the same. They both silently stripped the bodies and donned the uniforms, morphing their faces to match their prey. Neither of them spoke until they’d hidden the bodies underneath a stack of boxes at the back of the room.
‘Check outside,’ said Melor, searching for any weapons the soldiers carried and becoming annoyed when she found none.
‘Clear,’ Jinner replied, peeking up and down the row outside the door.
They both picked up the boxes and exited, placing them at the ends of the rows, as had been done before, and trotted back to get more.
‘Where’ve you two been?’ a sergeant bellowed, as they arrived at the lift shaft.
‘Er, bathroom break,’ mumbled Melor, deepening her voice.
‘Oh dear,’ he grumbled. ‘Did you have to hold each other’s fucking hand?’
He thrust two more boxes into their hands from a metal cage hanging in the lift shaft and jabbed his finger back down towards the cavern. ‘Fucking move it,’ he said. ‘I personally don’t want to be here if that lot decide to go wakey wakey,’ he shouted after them as they moved quickly back towards the cavern.
‘Permission to kill him?’ Jinner whispered.
‘Unfortunately, it’s a no,’ Melor whispered back. ‘He would be missed and the other bodies would probably be found. Let’s just do as we’re told until we’re topside and then we can disappear.’
They both fell silent as the other two soldiers placing the boxes passed them in the doorway.
‘In trouble again, Galter?’ one of them sneered.
‘Trying to have your sentence extended some more?’ said the other one, grinning malevolently.
‘Oh shit,’ said Jinner, once they were out of earshot.
‘We’re military prisoners,’ said Melor, glancing down at the jumpsuit. ‘I thought it weird they were wearing these and were unarmed.’
They kept quiet for the next fifteen minutes as they placed the remaining boxes around the bunker and once they’d finished, the sergeant went around the complex and armed each box.
‘Right, in the cage,’ he said, when he returned, nodding at the lift shaft.
It was a squeeze with all five of them and Melor realised how deep they’d been as the cage bumped and rattled its way back up to the surface. She was surprised to emerge into daylight; the buildings above the complex were completely missing. A shallow crater, a hundred metres across and exposing the bare rock beneath, was all that remained. Badly damaged buildings stretched away on all sides, some still smouldering, and the smell of burning wood and plastics hung in the air.
‘In the truck, you four,’ barked the sergeant, nodding at a military vehicle parked at the fringe of the crater.
They stumbled through the mud and debris and clambered aboard the back of the small truck, Melor deliberately seating herself behind the driver. The sergeant got in the passenger seat next to him and two other armed soldiers sat at the back, blocking their exit from the open rear of the vehicle.
As they pulled off and began weaving their way through the devastation, Melor noticed the GDA destroyer lying in a field, its back broken and several fire trucks still damping down small fires around the hull. She patted Jinner’s knee and nodded towards the wreck. They both grinned at each other and began paying attention to where they were.
The truck pulled up at a T-junction waiting to turn left. Melor checked there was no vehicle behind and winked at Jinner.
‘Now,’ she said calmly and both their stilettos flashed again.
The vehicle stalled as the driver and the sergeant slumped forwards in their seats. The two soldiers at the rear, who’d been staring out the back, turned when they felt the truck jerk and stop, their eyes becoming as wide as saucers when they saw the two slumped in the front. Both began fumbling for their weapons, but were easily beaten as Jinner and Melor lunged across the other two prisoners, whose mouths hung open in shock, and the thin blades found their marks for the third time that day.
‘Out,’ shouted Melor, to the other two prisoners, encouraging them by waving the blades in front of their faces.
They dived over the dead soldiers, onto the road and ran.
‘Shouldn’t we have killed them too?’ Jinner asked, as they pulled the two bodies in the front into the back and Melor slid into the driver’s seat.
‘Probably,’ Melor replied, as she restarted the truck and turned right, away from the military base. ‘Give me one of the helmets.’
They drove directly to the city’s airport, parked the truck on the lowest level of long term, covered over the bodies in the back and stripped back to the female clothing.
‘Face,’ said Melor, nodding at Jinner.
‘Oh, shit, yeah,’ said Jinner, morphing back to her female appearance as they ascended the deserted stairway up to the monorail terminal.